To The Mountain!

So lovely! Happy Lughnasa Weekend, Colette and all who celebrate this first harvest festival. I stopped FaceBook in December 2011 and Twitter in 2009 and still have a beautiful online community of my own choosing and loving. However you feel led to engage with the world and its news, do remember that Nature is the great healer. Enjoy the bounty and the beauty — offered to all of us from the Heart of the Mother, the Strength of the Water, and the Light of the Sun. Big blessings!

Bealtaine Cottage, Ireland

I’ve been spending much of this week catching up with a great many tasks that were backing up around me…cork-tiling the bathroom floor and part of the Lodge floor, clearing the tunnel for the winter crops and all the usual stuff such as clearing and mowing the paths in the gardens!

I have got a lot done because I made the decision last week to come off Facebook…and have shared my thoughts with you on this…

I posted a number of pics on FB this morning, as so many people delight in seeing Bealtaine Cottage!

It is, however, almost impossible to respond to comments left on FB as I simply do not have the time and am resolved not to negate my commitment to this blog and the second website at bealtainecottage.org

Those of you who have followed this blog for any amount of time will be aware of the…

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Manifestation Discernment

Exactly! I always tell people who can’t decide between A or B that they need to imagine a C thru Z. We don’t live in an either/or world, unless we insist on it. Manifesting something in no way obligates you to accept that manifestation of something feels off. Go back to the drawing board. Perhaps literally. Make a mind map; do some active daydreaming. Assess what you love about A or B and what feels less than optimal, then get creative. In a world of all possibilities… Some things are stepping stones, and some are warnings. Some are the real deal. Integrating left and right brain, mind, body, and soul helps you to know when you’re selling yourself short. You don’t need to know the how …just allow yourself to imagine a taste of the optimal what.

Thx, T! ❤️❤️❤️

Tania Marie

Just because you manifest an opportunity, doesn’t mean you have to take it, especially if it doesn’t match your integrity fully or your own needs.

Each manifestation is an opportunity to learn to refine your skills and clarify your vision in mirror to your trueness.

So, if you have to still struggle, force, manipulate, and become frustrated with it, or it just doesn’t still feel fully right, then chances are it’s a nicely wrapped package, but the contents still aren’t in alignment.

This is a good sign your manifesting skills are at work and they just need a little more tweaking in terms of connecting with your core needs.

Remember, it’s both important to be giving and receiving in balance.

So, go back to focusing on the “essence” of what you want to manifest and support yourself with belief and value so you can be a clear voice that will…

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Garden Pretties and Yummies

Some recent rains in this very dry summer have the garden looking lush and producing well! Below you can see one of the newer “neighborhoods” planted this year, including one of nine hazelnut trees, a gooseberry bush, three hostas, nasturtiums, kalette, kale, comfrey, calendula, zephirine rose, and blackeyed peas. The dead looking matter around the base of the hazel is cut down comfrey, which adds nutrients back to the soil to help this tree thrive:

This area was originally a mass of tree stumps and so many dandelions that it was constantly going to seed. In 2014, I put out large swaths of landscape cloth and covered it with mulch. The only thing growing there was my old garden tower, but as the mulch and repeated layers of mulch broke down, I noticed extremely dark, rich soil there. Not planting anything seemed like a waste of good yard space, plus I have a view of that area from my writing office.

The difference in growth between this area and the new yard in front of the blue house is striking, as this original yard has been sprayed twice yearly for 3.5 years with a farm grade fish emulsion and soil conditioner a friend of mine invented, whereas the other yard has only gotten two treatments and began with crappy soil. The gooseberry above (bottom left corner) was planted at the same time as the one in front of the blue house, but is three times as full! That gives me hope for the blue house yard, which just needs more TLC to catch up to its neighbor.

Above, you can also see a row of dwarf apple trees and some of the backyard gardens. Here’s a closer look at those:

Zinnias have finally made a strong, regular appearance, shown here with various chards, cabbage, tomato, French sorrel, nasturtium, borage and calendula. Behind them you can see our two pokeweed sentinels by the back gate, more comfrey and borage, and just a hint of blueberry bushes and raspberries to the upper left:

Cushaw squash has begun its journey to the sun. These are the extremely drought tolerant vines that produced five toddler sized squash last summer with me completely ignoring them. You can see one of those below, alongside Egyptian walking (all over the place) onions, sea kale, tomato, eggplant, more borage, and kohlrabi, with rhubarb in the back and another triple tiered bed to the upper right containing various peppers, Thai basil and a volunteer melon of some sort:

I’ve been harvesting, freezing, juicing, making falafel white scallop squash “fries” in the convection oven, and today marks the first pickles of 2016:

(No, I did not juice that entire homegrown beet! I used about a third, and that pile of homegrown produce (except three stalks of celery) made 1.5 pints of green juice. Mmmm, so fresh! The white scallop squash “fries” helped me use up some falafel mix that needed to go. I just tossed strips with a bit of olive oil and the mix, then baked at 400 and finished with a broiler until crispy. They went really well with a homemade vegan ranch dressing over salad greens, fresh tomato and a cucumber.)

The squirrel planted giant sunflowers out back have reached at least ten feet! You can see them below with the white scallop squash plant (bottom) and the “ideal companion plant” borage, which has pretty much taken over here. The bees love it, so I’m getting loads of pollination this year:

Despite the enormous sunflower, the three Brussels sprout plants growing under it appear to enjoy my neglect:

The echinacea by our front door is in full bloom…

…and every morning begins with me opening the curtains and calling out, “Hello, morning glories! You’re looking glorious!”

Wishing you abundant beauty and deliciousness!

Spiritual Practices to Finding Equilibrium in the Chaos: Grounding, and Flow through the Druid Elements

Here are some excellent coping strategies and awareness for all the crazy energies being reflected on the world stage right now. As always, Dana provides detailed instructions and wisdom. Many thanks!

The Druid's Garden

A tremendous amount of really difficult occurrences are happening in the world right now. It seems like the more time that passes, the more we balance on the edge. The edge of what exactly, nobody can say.  But the edge of something, and likely, not something any of us are looking forward to. Things seem to be spinning faster, and faster; the light growing darker and darker.  A lot of folks are having difficulty just coping with reading the news or even being on social media, the enormity of everything–social, political, environmental, personal–weighing down.  Responses to this range from rage and anger to numbness. There is a heaviness in the air that cannot be discounted.

A good place to seek the stability of calas

And so, many of us turn to spiritual practices as a way of helping make sense of it all, to find a way forward, finding a…

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Seeing with a Glittering Eye

The glittering eye seems to be the same inner eye that sees the Fae, observes a pulsating light that flits across the garden and swears the factory across the street is a bizarre mirage hiding deep Indiana forest filled with laughing fauns. (Not the w kind either, the magical ones…). To cultivate the glittering eye, it helps to retreat from those who insist upon their “normal” vision. A world without magic is a sorry world, indeed, but when the world glitters ….ah, such beauty everywhere!

A Druid Way

The inspirational email from OBOD for this week reads:

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it. — Roald Dahl

OK Roald, what are you saying? I’ll walk some of the way with you because of your magic. After all, it’s almost part of the definition that creative people have felt it, and pass along a hint of it, even as it slips between their fingers. But wait — belief comes first, and thenmagic? Seeing is believing, we’ve been told; believing is seeing. But what’s a glittering eye? Well, it seems it’s a useful technique.

Sometimes the world demands it of us — it’s the only option if we want to see at all.

On our return car trip from a Chicago wedding last weekend, we…

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Lilies, Glads, Sunflowers and the Backyard Forest Garden

Mid-July has brought an explosion of white and color in the backyard (and front yard) forest garden. People keep asking about these white lilies — some of them taller than David — so I thought I’d share some of the abundance and beauty:

A peek at the edible ornamental backyard forest garden with black lace elderberry to the left, various currants and jostaberries to the right of the path, plus a potted lemon tree, and off frame to the right, hazelnut, aronia berry and apples:

You can see more of the raised beds that allow abundant growth over a yard full of juglone containing black walnut stumps. The beds are so full that you can’t really see the three beds of triple-tiered produce behind these green zebra tomatoes, bush basil, shiso, egglant, asparagus, beans, chard, and marigolds, but they’re spilling over with a mystery melon, tomatoes, Thai basil, cabbage and more:

The front yard has gone full on sunflower, gladiolus and lilies, so large that you can barely see the cherry and pear trees, blueberry bushes, hazelnuts, kale and kalette behind them:

The bees are very happy here, too, with skirret, chives, borage, calendula, black eyed Susan’s, zinnias and elecampane:

It’s difficult to believe or convey just how non-magical this yard originally felt and looked. Yes, it does take work to maintain, but I actually spend far, far less time in the yard than I did for the first two years of living here. This year, I have spent more time harvesting than anything else: black and red raspberries, blueberries, currants, aronia berries, strawberries, sea kale, lettuce, herbs, asparagus, peas, green beans, pears, sour cherries, tomatoes, basil, garlic, onions, cucumbers, parsnips, cabbage, eggplant, flowers for bouquets and loads and loads and loads of greens!

We eat well, and many of the trees and shrubs have only just begun to produce. We look forward to the extra thirteen asparagus plants I’ve added to the blue house yard, along with more fruit and nut trees and shrubs.

Anyone can add food to their landscape! You don’t need 1/3 of an acre like we have here (minus the houses and garages). Espaliered fruit trees take very little room along a fence. Fruit and nut shrubs and trees can take the place of more traditional ornamentals. Special colors of vegetable plants make them look unrecognizable as food plants, blending into more traditional flower beds. You can use raised beds, plant in the ground, a Garden Tower, “big bag beds,” or any and all combinations of these to fit your space, time and budget. Too much shade? Grow currants. They produce buckets full even in deep shade. No room? Experiment with vertical gardening through trellises, teepees and tiered raised beds.

For me it’s not just about the food. It’s about bringing beauty and nature to an otherwise industrial, impoverished and forlorn spot of earth. Birds, chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits and all manner of insects abound in our yards, delighting the eyes and senses … and most importantly, the heart and soul. In a world of chaos, gardens offer a chance to bring peace, abundance and delight, along with grounding and natural anti-depressants. As David likes to say, what’s not to love?

If you missed spring and summer produce, it’s not too late to plant for fall. Look into cool season crops like kale, brassicas, Lucullus chard, beets, carrots, daikon radishes, and even very short season warm weather veggies. Check your seed packs for days to harvest and subtract from your average first frost date to see if you can still get a harvest!

Wishing you and yours abundance and joy.

 

Reiki 1 Certification Class in Goshen/Michiana

REIKI TRAINING

Reiki Level 1 Certification Class in Goshen, Indiana

Saturday, September 10, 2016 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. (East Coast time) in Goshen, Indiana.

For reference, Goshen is about 40 minutes East of South Bend, 8 miles from the Michigan border, and 2-3 hours from the Chicago area, depending on your exact location. A limited number of rooms are available for students who need to spend the night.

Students will learn and/or receive:

• History, nature, and science of Reiki.
• Experiencing Reiki energy.
• Using Reiki with other healing arts.
• Discussion of 21-day cleanse.
• Treating animals and plants.
• Essence scanning process.
• Establishing a Reiki practice.
• Practice self-treatment hand positions.
• Handouts and resource list.
• Reiki Circles.
• What a Reiki lineage represents.
• Giving a Reiki treatment with hand positions.
• Ethics and Legal Responsibilities as a Reiki Practitioner.
• Reiki Level 1 Attunement.

Certification: At the end of the training, each student will receive a certificate acknowledging completion of Reiki Level 1, as well as recognition as a Reiki Level 1 Practitioner. Taking any Reiki training with me also qualifies each student to audit (at no cost) any additional Reiki classes taught by me, up to and including the level completed with her (space permitting).

Fee: $175 ($150 if prepaid by 8/31/2016)

Please contact me to reserve your spot.

Quick & Valuable Tips for Empaths

Definitely an essential share! Thank you, Dawn and Tania! I know for myself and many other empaths, these are not a once and done lesson either. They require continual reminders and refinement as we grow, change and encounter new challenges that tug our heartstrings. Love to you both! ❤️

Tania Marie

My sweet friend Dawn of Reiki Dawn shared this on Facebook and I felt it important to not only repost there, but to share with the blog world too, as I know so many of you are empaths like myself.

These are all things I’ve had to learn, very much the hard way, especially being a boundaryless Pisces without distinction between myself and the collective. And I can say that implementing them has made all the difference.

These don’t make you any less service-oriented or compassionate. If anything, you become a more empowered, unconditionally compassionate example and you have that much more to give authentically and intentfully.

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Opportunities for Influence

As Within, So Without. Indeed, so much of our outer life depends on what sorts of healing, initiations, and/or processes we engage within. On the other hand, we do live in times of tremendous collective influence, and finding that right balance as we move into the Age of Aquarius seems quite elusive on the world stage!

Emergence can quickly get co-opted into emergency, yet we also can direct from within our own peaceful, liberated hearts and minds. If you feel so led, please take your pick among any or all of these key emergence/emergency hot zones this summer:

Expected today: US House of “Representatives” voting on the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act. Masquerading as a mandatory GMO labeling law, this bill makes mandatory labeling completely voluntary with zero consequences for disobeying the law. It also gives a free pass to the most GMO-ridden crops, nullifies any state and local GMO labeling laws (even those already in effect for years), and some attorneys fear that tricky legaleze (legal sleeze?!) may open the door to making it illegal for non-organically certified small farms to list their produce or seeds as non-GMO.

The Senate already passed this monstrosity, and the House voted for a similar bill last year. We know most of the Senate and Representatives are bought and paid for by Monsanto and Big Pharma, brainwashed or bribed into shilling for those hell bent on destroying our planet, sovereignty and health. I’m personally sending the AR Rune right smack dab into the mix. The AR Rune shines light in dark places, can break through brainwashing, repels ill wishing magic, restores honor, and can also transform a DARK “Yes” vote to a shining “No.” Worth a shot! Reiki Healing Attunements to blow away the fog of denial and corruption can also help.

This vote is expected very soon, so work your magic ASAP. With the TPP and TTIP trade treaties, what happens in America doesn’t stay in America, so if you’re overseas, this process potentially affects you, too.

Ongoing: Brexit and other proposed EU Exits.

Sending light and discernment to your own country and asking for the highest good of all — can help these situations expand into their own emergence, rather than devolving into emergencies that end up creating even tighter regulations and controls. “As within, so without” includes inviting the Wisdom to see both sides’ points so that real, tangible, beneficial solutions can reveal themselves. Nothing in politics happens by accident. Ken at http://redefininggod.com has been detailing these anticipated moves for years. I don’t always agree with everything he posts, but awareness of the coup countercoup charade of the world stage right now can help to find local, person to person, humane solutions that create evolution instead of just another revolution that takes you right back to where you started, only with tighter controls.

July 18-21: Republican National Convention, Cleveland, Ohio

It will take massive amounts of prayer, healing energy, peaceful intentions and deliberate actions for the highest good of all in order for the US not to devolve into Civil War and/or Martial Law this fall. This is not a doomer prediction, as I know we each have influence; however, paid agitators and thugs have already been hired to disrupt the Republican National Convention. Even if nothing happens at the convention, an announcement of Trump is set to trigger riots if he does win … and likely to trigger a revolution if he doesn’t win.

The stakes have been raised, lit and the fires continually stoked. Those who wish to impose order from chaos are standing by with truckloads of gasoline to pour on high running emotions from all sides. I suggest the Reiki Mental Emotional Healing Symbol to surround this convention. For those not trained in Level 2 of Reiki, you can imagine healing, soft green light infusing harmony and peace in the crowds in Cleveland and other cities responding to events in Cleveland. Imagining a gentle rain might also help to keep heads cool enough to assess opportunities for emergence rather than reacting to gratuitous, race-baiting vitriol.

Let’s aim for people recognizing the humanity in each other and uniting to overthrow the gasoline purveyors intent on gaining more control from the chaos they ignite.

July 25-28: Democratic National Convention, Philadephia, Pennsylvania

This convention offers/threatens to wake up the idealistic Left to realize just how fixed and ridiculously controlled the system really is. Millions of Bernie supporters received a b!tch slap in the face and kick in the gut when their “People’s” candidate endorsed a former Monsanto lawyer, former and current Wall Street lapdog, should-be-indicted-but-isn’t (on multiple accounts) criminal, war mongerer endorsed by Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, and anti-women’s rights (on so many levels), vote-stealing, establishment candidate.

Say what?! Millions of super nice people just got a rude awakening.If cognitive dissonance does not fully take root, these people have a chance to leave the field and grow something truly grassroots.

The Democratic National Convention is, ironically, building a Donald Trump like wall to keep outsiders from entering, but Hillary’s most recent free pass from the FBI and ever more controversial Loretta Lynch has anger seething from both far Left and far Right with an increasing number of centrists joining the mix. Who knows what people have planned for this event? But we can rest assured various behind the scenes players intend to benefit from watching the People fight amongst themselves. All wars are bankers’ wars.

I suggest the AR Rune for this convention, too — to help people see behind the pretty words and lofty sentiments. What actions and long term results support these words? Where do the policies espoused by the speakers work directly against what they say they stand for? Where are the Feminists who truly love women? Where are the people empowering “the poor” not to be poor anymore? Where are the organic food lovers and small farmers truly wanting to feed the world real food? Where are the Earth lovers not wanting to give big corporations total control over our environment? Where do the ideals not match up with the policies? Where are the good-hearted idealists projecting their own good-hearted idealism onto people actively working against those ideals?

The Reiki Distant Healing Symbol can help infuse the present words and future plans with awareness of how we got here in the first place, as well as “been there, done that, and now it’s worse ‘solutions.'” Gentle loving-kindness can also help heal the wounds of yet another betrayal. Sending deep Earth energy and grounding to this convention can help to bring ideals into more concrete actions that actually align in the physical, tangible realm with ideals of equal rights for women, care of the Earth, care of communities.

Ultimately, we are the ones we are waiting for, and the sooner we realize that, the easier the rebuilding process will be. We can model what’s possible in our own lives, but we are also powerful beings. Voting machines are much more easily rigged than consciously directed energy and intentions are.

Blessed Be!

And see if you can find some way to be the blessing. 🙂

Soul Support

We’re in soulful times right now, as evidenced by extreme polarization and dissatisfaction on the world stage, coupled by so many individuals’ long held dreams finally coming true. If you find your soul alternately weeping, screaming and/or whooping it up, here are some good reminders and grounded support:

5 Signs Your Life is About to Go Through a Radical Change

(I’m hearing so many of these signs during sessions, and I know in our own lives, David and I are definitely going through a big time — and welcome –shift. The list at the above link allows you to take inventory to see how radical your soul’s next moves might become. When soul summoned opportunities knock, best to answer!)

The Tower Card

(I wrote the above linked article back in 2012, but if anything, the polarization has grown even more extreme. “Many people dread The Tower even more than Death or The Devil, but again, perspective plays an important role. Do we choose to focus on the lightning, the forcible removal of old paradigms, the free fall, or the fire? How does the implied trauma of this card shift if we acknowledge that the old paradigms no longer worked? The Tower was William Butler Yeats’ very favorite card, and it’s one of mine, too. It has a personal meaning for me, as I associate it with my 1998 brain injury, which arrived like a lightning strike and threw my entire sense of identity, thought patterns, and ways of being into a rocky sea. But you know what? That brain injury was the best thing that ever happened to me. Destroying the old reality opened an expansive and yet strangely intimate reality far beyond and far preferable to what I’d known before.” Read on to learn how to take advantage of the Tower Card’s inherent opportunities.)

El Mundo Bueno

(This was one of my most popular articles from 2014 — even more relevant today than before.)

If you’re feeling the Tower and El Mundo’s tug, and these articles only underscore that fact, I designed this month’s specials specifically in anticipation of the increased intensity. There’s no shame in seeking extra support and empowering input when you find yourself poised to make a change. In a world of all possibilities, why not prepare to launch instead of stressing over a possible lightning strike? When we recognize what our soul has summoned, we can position ourselves to receive instead of resist the coming changes. Exercising conscious influence in times of chaos takes advantage of opportunities and provides an extra edge in creating the life you’d most love to live.

JULY 2016 SPECIALS

Intuitive Preparedness Check-In

This is a return of a popular 2014 special, which I feel called to highlight again now due to so many people asking me about Brexit, potential US election chaos, gardening questions, and especially with so many people suddenly (since July 1) sensing new openings and opportunities that once seemed very far away. People want to know how to maintain an positive, proactive vibration and how to thrive while also shoring up any weak spots. This special responds to many comments, questions and private emails requesting my take on the question “What can I do right now?” — for specific individuals, rather than general guidelines and suggestions.

This hour session gives you access to my own intuitive scan of what areas of focus will provide you the greatest payback and sense of abundance, peace and security, with the least amount of resistance. Those looking to make larger lifestyle shifts can ask me to scan various lifestyle, location and/or community options to see which ones fit best with your vibration and heart’s desires. You can also use our time together to discuss energetic/magickal protection and manifestation tools and techniques, along with troubleshooting your most pressing concerns in various areas of life, including finances, food security, faith/spirituality/soul nurturing, relationships and/or land, including “garden guidance.”

I feel so strongly about helping people take steps from fear, denial and overwhelm into abundance, joy and freedom, that I’m keeping this pricing a simple $123. As Tolkien said, “Little by little, one travels far.”

Please contact me if you’d like to sign up for this special. Offer valid if prepaid on or before July 31, 2016.

 

$333 Intuitive Coaching Three-Pack

With regular intuitive or life coaching sessions running $175/hour, this special offers major savings at $333/three hours. I’ve found that even people who normally process things on their own feel challenged by the increased intensity and “sorting” of the Universe these days. As we continue with Earth changes, internal and galactic shifts, I feel called to offer a short burst of support to those in need. These sessions can be used close together or saved for a future need. You can use them in hour or half-hour segments. The entire package can be gifted to someone else, but (for simplicity of paperwork) these three-packs cannot be divided and shared among multiple individuals. Offer valid if prepaid on or before July 31, 2016. To schedule your first session or purchase the package, please contact me here.